Who is the Saint of Killers and Why Is He After Jesse in Preacher?

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Preacher Meet the Saint of Killers

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In Season 2, Preacherharks back to its comic book roots with Jesse (Dominic Cooper), Tulip (Ruth Negga) and Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun) finally hitting the road in search of God. The plot shift also means we'll be seeing more of the story's biggest villain — the Saint of Killers.

The menacing figure first appeared back in Season 1 as a mysterious Cowboy with a penchant for brutal slaughtering, like making someone's head explode with just one bullet. "He is a violent man. He is the Saint of Killers. He's not the saint of Yoga and so he does some pretty bad stuff," Graham McTavish explained to TVGuide.com.

Through a series of flashbacks, we learned that he lost both his wife and daughter after a rare moment of benevolence and has been tormented in Hell ever since. By the end of the season, he's called up by the angels Fiore (Tom Brooke) and DeBlanc (Anatol Yusef) who send him on a mission to kill Jesse Custer (but not before murdering DeBlanc on the way out).

Though his mission is clear, there's another reason he's set on taking down the preacher. "He's also somebody who had a family and that is what is motivating him through Season 2," McTavish added. "[He] is trying to be reunited with those people in heaven." He'll only be able to do so if he succeeds in destroying Genesis, the entity that's currently occupying Jesse's body, which grants the latter the power of the Word of God.

In the comics, the Saint is one of the few beings not compelled by Genesis and that seems to be the case on the show as well, making him a formidable enemy. Even worse, it's revealed in the second episode of Season 2 that he can track the Word of God and as such is able to find Jesse whenever he uses the power. So expect him to pop up frequently since the preacher can't resist using that booming voice to get his way.